Supporting Children's Learning Code of Practice and associated regulations: consultation analysis

Chapter 4 School Attendance: Rights, Responsibilities and Placing Requests

1. Chapter 4 considers five circumstances under which a child or young person may not be receiving school education in their local school. Q5 asked, "Is the information provided in Chapter 4 appropriate? If you selected no, please provide details of additional information which should be included or removed and a brief reason for it."

Results

2. As reflected in the percentages above, feedback on this chapter was mainly positive. For example, "Lots of detailed information for the different settings pupils may be educated in."

3. There were comments which queried why mediation had not been extended to children aged 12- 15. This was a decision taken prior to the introduction of the amendments to Parliament in 2015. As the mediation process used is face to face mediation where all parties are in the room together to resolve concerns, this could place a child under undue pressure and lead to them being back in school without having dealt with the discussion at the mediation process. This was felt to include the risk of undermining the child's relationships in school which would be counterproductive. As a result, instead, the requirement to take account of the child's view as part of the mediation process has been extended.

4. Consultation responses commented on the complexity of this chapter, such as "The sections on placing requests still lack clarity and require to be read a number of times". The chapter, as has the whole Code, has been reviewed during and after the consultation. Improvements and clarification to the text has been made where possible.